


Luck of the Draw

by realityIllusionist



Category: RWBY
Genre: (probably), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Developing Relationship, Fight Scenes, Fix-It, Gen, I can and will die mad about s7ep12, In which I take a hammer and fix the canon, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tyrian is here, unfortunately
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22868935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realityIllusionist/pseuds/realityIllusionist
Summary: Set after episode 11, and reworks from the end of the episode before the infamous ep 12.With the fate of Mantle on the line, Clover is forced to make a series of difficult choices. Though he has always trusted Ironwood, he finds the decisions he has made impossible to back up. With Qrow by his side, what will Clover do to save Atlas, especially now that it is no longer the kingdom he once knew?
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45





	Luck of the Draw

_ “Ironwood’s declaring martial law and abandoning Mantle! Salem is coming and he’s going to use the Staff to move Atlas. If we don’t stop him Mantle’s going to be de-” _

Clover looked down at his scroll in shock, still processing both the announcement and Ironwood’s sudden warrant out for Qrow and Robyn’s arrests. Surely he couldn’t  _ really  _ be doing this, right? Ironwood was reckless and impulsive sometimes, but there was no way that he would do this without a reason. There had to be something more going on here— some piece of the puzzle that Clover didn’t have that would make all of this make sense.

Looking at Robyn and Qrow, Clover stood up— causing them both to do the same in an almost defensive manner, as if they expected Clover to attack them at any given moment. 

“Tell me what’s going on.” Clover demanded, and Qrow rolled his eyes. Unlike his normal eye rolls, this one carried a condescending heat to it that Clover was unfamiliar with; as if he really couldn’t believe that Clover was asking him that. 

“What does it look like? James is abandoning Mantle, and he wants you to arrest us because we have a conscious.” Qrow practically sneered at him. Robyn nodded, glaring daggers into Clover as she instinctively reached for her weapon; ready to strike him down at a moment’s notice. 

Clover’s brow furrowed. Did they really expect him to attack them over this? Even if he  _ was _ intent on arresting them, there wasn’t much that could be done inside the confines of an airship. Additionally, he thought he had their trust— after what he and Qrow had been through together, he thought that Qrow would know him better at that point. 

Tyrian cackled in the background, seemingly relishing in the conflict. Clover did his best to ignore him, and spoke again. “I trust Ironw—”

“Of course you do,  _ Clover _ .” Qrow snarled, and it caught Clover off guard— Qrow never called him by his name. It was always ‘Wonder Boy’, ‘Lucky Charm’, ‘Mister Ace Operative,’ or occasionally even ‘Cloves.’ It was never just  _ Clover.  _

At that moment, Clover made one of the hardest decisions of his life. 

He took one final look at his scroll, then turned it off and smashed it on the ground. “You didn’t let me finish. I trust Ironwood, but I’m not going to follow him blindly. He may have abandoned Mantle, but  _ I’m _ not going to.” 

Their eyes widened at that, and Robyn’s hand slowly moved from her weapon— Qrow’s sneer turned into a soft smile, and Clover couldn’t help but smile back. 

“I knew you had it in you, Wonder Boy.” Qrow responded, softly, as if trying to convince  _ himself  _ of it as well. As he said that, Clover saw a vulnerability in Qrow’s eyes that he hadn’t seen before— like he was just beginning to realize that he could completely trust Clover.

“Clover?” Harriet’s voice echoed through his comm. In the background, he could hear fighting— making it abundantly clear to him which side his “team” had chosen. “What’s going on over there?! We’ve got a bit of a  _ situation _ over here, and we could really use your h—” 

Clover took the headset out of his ear, not wanting to listen to them any more. He stared at it in what was almost shock, before crushing it with his hand. Qrow made a noise of confusion, and Clover just shook his head. 

“We can’t rely on any of the other Ace Ops. It seems like they’re intent on following the General’s orders on bringing you all in.” Clover said, and he heard a sadness in his own voice that he didn’t expect. Though he had maintained that the relationship between him and the rest of the Ace Ops was purely professional, he couldn’t help but consider them to be his friends after all they’d been through; or at least, he  _ had  _ considered them friends. 

“Clover,” Robyn began, her tone sympathetic. Clover just held up a hand and shook his head in response, sighing heavily. 

“It’s alright. I might not have them anymore, but I have you.” 

Qrow made a soft noise of surprise, something akin to a faint blush creeping up on his cheeks. Clover did a small, almost imperceptible double take— did that statement really embarrass Qrow, or was it something else entirely? After everything, did Qrow still believe that Clover didn’t care about him, or was he still figuring it out? Although Clover didn’t know the answer to that question, he was sure he’d find out eventually. 

Just as it seemed that everything would be fine, Tyrian spoke. 

“While this… camaraderie is all well and good, I do believe I have a mission to do.” Tyrian stood up, and moved so quickly that it was nearly impossible to process. 

He jumped up quickly, landing in a crouching position as he kicked outwards, sweeping Clover’s legs out from under him; lunging forwards, he went to grab the steering wheel of the ship, as if trying to crash the airship. 

Luckily, Clover was able to regain his footing in enough time to grab Tyrian, roughly yanking him back away from the pilot. Tyrian made a noise that could only be described as a growl as he turned around, lunging at Clover as best as he could. When the handcuffs prevented him from doing so, he yelled out in frustration. 

“No, no, no! This is all  _ wrong _ !” Tyrian yelled out, before seeming to get an idea. 

He hit his arm as hard as he could against the metal of the hangar, and a sickening  _ snap _ could be heard as his hand broke. His yelp of pain quickly turned into a maniacal cackle as he slipped his now-broken hand out of his restraints, raising both of his arms in a gesture that almost looked like a shrug. 

“I’d love to stay and chat, but I have much more important matters to attend to. Surely you understand.” Tyrian said, once again lunging to crash the plane. This time, it was Qrow who caught him— grabbing him by his broken arm and causing him to make a noise like a wounded animal. With his other arm, Tyrian went to slash at Qrow’s throat, but Clover caught his arm and punched him in the face as Qrow released his hand. 

The punch connected with the side of Tyrian’s face, causing him to stumble back a few steps. Once he regained his footing, he went to lunge at Clover— who blocked the attack with Kingfisher, pulling it forwards to throw Tyrian off-balance. Despite being a very fast and agile man, Tyrian tripped; Qrow was quick to make sure that he wouldn’t get back up, stepping on his back with enough force to completely knock the air out of Tyrian lungs. 

“That’s enough of that, Callows.” Clover remarked, unable to keep the scorn out of his voice. With Qrow’s help, he was able to restrain the still-struggling Tyrian, and he breathed a sigh of relief once they had done so. 

“What now?” Robyn asked, glaring daggers in Tyrian’s direction. 

“I say we stay on our current course. If we can find any way to divert the attention back to Mantle, then we do that. At the very least, we can find team RWBY and the others, and get their—” Clover began, but was cut off by Tyrian bursting into laughter once more, which soon turned into a full-on laughing fit. Clover at first assumed he was delirious from the pain, but his gut told him that it was something else. 

More often than not, Clover trusted his gut on things like this— maybe it had something to do with his Semblance, or maybe it was just pure instinct.

Regardless of the reason, Clover turned around, about to ask Tyrian what he thought was so funny, when—”

“ _ Clover!! _ ” Qrow yelled, as Clover felt something tear open his jacket, and looked down to see what it was. Once he did, his eyes widened in shock—

_ The sharp barb of Tyrian's tail, having cut its way all the way down to his flesh. _


End file.
